Marketing properties to brands: Music channels out to chart a success story

It’s not just songs that make music channels tick anymore. The growth of music channels and the rise in competition over the last few years have made channels to put their act together. Music channels like MTV, Zee Muzic, Channel [v] and the most recently launched Music India, have set out to market themselves uniquely.

MTV, Zee Muzic and Channel [v] have spiralled almost half a dozen campaigns over the last one year, which might have helped boost their viewership partially. Music India, however, is still in its initial stage.

A change in the marketing pattern is seen in some of MTV’s recent campaigns that include the ‘Brotherhood of Paan campaign’, the AIDS awareness week campaign, as well as their youth-oriented initiatives like their MTV Backpack Holidays venture with Travelguru, where the concentration is on the MTV brand than on a show.

“We are trying to bring out the culture of the city through the paan-eating campaign, although a lot of people mistake it as a promotion for spitting,” said Aditya Swamy, Head of MTV Networks.

For MTV, their campaigns are a way of entering and participating in the lives of their target audiences. “The various ways in which we make our presence felt in the lives of the youth – be it logos on clothes, through credit card programmes, or planning holidays – we are becoming a part of their lives,” said Sandeep Dahiya, Director, Communications & Consumer Products, MTV Networks India.

Channel [v], on the other hand, has also worked on making the music experience more interactive and garnering audience attention. “We’ve had various community-building events like those at Mocha outlets with different artists. Here, there is a personal touch to the event as the audience is up close with the artist, unlike it is in bigger concerts,” said a Channel [v] executive.

Some of their other campaigns, which include the VJ freshers / VJ hunt contest, currently in its final stage, and their Lola Kutty campaign, where Boney M CDs would have the image of the Lola Kutty, had also worked towards increasing viewership and interest in the channel, according to the Channel [v] official.

Zee Muzic has launched B News, which will provide all the news on Bollywood to the audience and has also organised an exhibition of John Abraham calendars at Fun Republic theatre. Ashwin Balwani, Business Head of Zee Muzic, said, “Our three campaigns revolve around Bollywood and try to connect to the interests of youth, health and family. The message is a simple one, which will get the youth hooked to the channel.”

It’s been only 11 weeks since the launch of Music India, and the channel is currently focusing on content. Though it has barely begun any campaigning, Music India tied up with a few brands like Barista and some shopping malls, which will run their channel on their screens.

“As of now, nothing except for the content is being looked at,” said Jatin Varma, Assistant Vice-President of Music India. “It is too early for us to comment on many of the tie-ups, but we are currently only looking at how to provide good content. As for campaigning, our target is the youth and we will be taking up special shows on particular films every now and then,” he added.